Practical Living

Dale O'Shields: Thank you for joining us for today's Practical Living broadcast. I pray that through this message, you will learn how to apply God's word and truths to any situation in your life. Stay with us as we discover God's truths that will transform us.

I want to talk to you this afternoon about staying encouraged in discouraging times. How do you stay encouraged in discouraging times? This message is so important that I'm actually going to break it into two parts. We'll dive into just a portion of it today. Next week, I'll continue to talk about this theme of encouragement in your life because it is so vital.

The overarching theme of this series is Life Quakes. That's the title of the series. We're talking about moments in your life that shake you up. Sometimes in life, we get shaken by different things. Some of the things we're shaken by in life are actually things that we anticipate. We know that this event's going to come up—you're going to get married, it's going to be a bit of a different event for you and a different lifestyle, you're going to have your first child—there are all kind of things that happen in life that you anticipate, but they're still a little bit stressful, a little bit of something you have to deal with in your life. They sort of shake you a bit.

But there are also other times when things come your way that are very sudden and shake you to the core of your being. Jesus talked about these life quake moments in Matthew chapter seven. He described, as we sang about just a few moments ago, two men that built houses. One man built his house on sand, and another man built his house on rock. Both men experienced the storms and the winds and the rain of life, but the Bible says only one of those men's houses remained, that was the one whose house was built on the rock.

So what we're learning in this series is how do you build your life on the rock so that when the shaking things come your way, you are able to not just survive but actually thrive through them—to actually get on the other side victoriously as an overcomer. As I said, we're talking today about this thing called discouragement because oftentimes discouragement will come in and will shake up your life and shake you to the core of your being in a very subtle way but also a very real way.

Two points I want to share with you this afternoon. The first one is a foundational principle that I want you to grasp with me. It lays the foundation for what we'll talk about in the second point and also what we'll talk about next week as well. The first point is basically this: to understand that discouragement is actually an enemy of your life, a very real enemy. It's vital that we identify it as an enemy.

We don't normally think of discouragement as an enemy. But when we think about life, you need to know who your friends are, and you need to know who your enemies are. You need to know what is your enemy. Your enemies are things that will come into your life to disrupt your life, to destroy your life, to debilitate your life, to diminish the quality of your life. Certainly, discouragement is one of those things that is an enemy to us.

As I said a moment ago, we don't normally think of it as an enemy, but it is very much an enemy, and the Bible describes it as such. In fact, the Bible tells us that the devil—one of his weapons in his artillery is to bring discouragement into your life. In Daniel chapter seven, the prophet Daniel is speaking of the activity of the devil. By the way, the devil is a real being. There are real evil forces in our world that will come against us and use different weapons against us. One of those weapons, as Daniel describes the weapons of the adversary in Daniel chapter seven, verse 25, is discouragement.

Notice what it says: "He shall," speaking of the devil, "he shall speak words against the Most High." Of course, we know Satan does that, speak words against the Most High. "But please notice this: and shall wear out the saints of the Most High." The devil wants to wear you out, to weary you down, to break you down, to in fact bring such weariness to your life that you become extremely discouraged and you give up.

Discouragement claims lots of casualties in the spiritual journey. I've watched many people lose their way in their spiritual journey because they grew discouraged. It's a very subtle weapon, but it's a very real weapon. Unless we understand it for what it is, we'll not be guarding against it and prepared to handle it the right way.

So let's define discouragement for us. Discouragement is the loss—you lose—courage, confidence, or motivation. One of those three or all three of those things. You lose courage to be the right kind of person to live the right way, confidence in your relationship with God or maybe relationships with other people, and then you lose your motivation. You're just not as motivated as you were before.

Sometimes we might even insert the word depression there because depression comes along with discouragement in our lives. It's caused by disappointments you experience, it's caused by difficulties you go through, it's caused by delays that happen in your life—things that you want to happen at a certain time and they're just not happening—and it's caused by emotional weariness. You just get tired on the inside, and it's very dangerous.

Discouragement is extremely dangerous. That's why the devil uses it in your life because it accomplishes certain things that he wants to accomplish in his agenda. Let me give you at least four terrible things that happen when you become discouraged. First of all, it will distort your perspective. You don't look at life the right way. You're looking through the lens of discouragement and so everything you look at, you're seeing it through a discouraged soul. So that's the lens of your life.

It begins to drain your energy, not just emotionally and spiritually but even physically. You just don't have the energy that you once had because you're discouraged. It has the impact on you spirit, soul, and body. Then I've noticed that discouragement will cause people to withdraw. They start pulling into their world and they retreat from life and oftentimes even sort of resign. They give up on life, give up on their responsibilities. They begin to pull back in so many different ways. They sort of go into an emotional cave when they're discouraged.

Finally—this is a catch-all phrase here, but I think it's important to understand—discouragement sort of hijacks your thoughts and hijacks your emotions. It comes in and takes over, and so you find the spiral of negativity happening in your life. One negative thought leads to another, and one negative set of emotions lead to other sets of emotions and you're going on this downward spiral as though some hijacker has taken over your life and is taking you where they want you to go instead of where you need to go in your life.

First point, discouragement, what is it? It is a very real enemy. You have to identify it as something that you don't want in your life. It is a force coming to bring weariness to your spirit, your soul, and to your body. It is something that will come to take you out of your spiritual race. Second point, and the one that I'll spend most of my time on today, having built the foundation of the first thing, that it's an enemy, is to understand that discouragement is the result of two primary things. It's the result of events that happen in your life or seasons that you go through in your life.

I want you to say two words with me: events and seasons. Say them with me. Events and seasons. Let's do it again. Events and seasons. I'm going to talk about both of those because both of them have a role to play when it comes to discouragement. I'm going to bring you to an example, first in the life of David in the Old Testament. Because in David's life, we see a moment when he has a terrible event that causes discouragement and then we'll see also a terrible season that he has that has caused discouragement.

The story is found in 1 Samuel chapter 30, the first six verses. I'm going to read these for you and then I'll help explain what the meaning of these verses are after I've read them to you. So listen as I read. "David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it and had taken captive the women and everyone in it, both young and old. They killed none of them but carried them off as they went on their way."

"When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. Each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him."

To understand what I've just read for you, you need a little bit of historical context and historical perspective. Let me tell you what led up to this event. At the time that David is experiencing this, Saul was the king of Israel. Saul was the very first king of Israel and Saul is ruling and reigning in the land, but God has taken His blessing from Saul. Saul is no longer anointed because Saul has disobeyed God so many times that God says, "I'm done with you." He sent the prophet Samuel to Saul to tell him, "I'm done with you. You'll be king for another period of time, but I'm done with you, no anointing on your life."

God sent Samuel to anoint another young man by the name of David. Although David is anointed, he's not king yet. Saul is king, but he's not anointed. David is anointed, but he's not king. As soon as Saul realizes that God has removed His blessing from him and placed blessing on David, Saul becomes very jealous of David. He is so jealous that he wants to kill David.

For a number of years, Saul pursues David, trying to destroy him, trying to kill David. David has to run for his life. He becomes a fugitive for about a decade of his life, running through the Judean wilderness, hiding from Saul who is always after him. At a certain point, David, in running from Saul, ends up at a place called Ziklag, what we just read about. It's in Philistine territory, but he's there in Ziklag and he sets up his camp there with his 600 men and with their families they're there as well, all their livestock, everything that went along with these 600 men that are part of his group together that are there with David, loyal to David.

There he is in Ziklag and there's a day that he's going out to engage in a battle. He goes out to have battle, does not actually engage in battle, and while he's away with his men going out toward battle, the Amalekites, who are another group of enemies of Israel, come into David's camp and they ransack the camp and they burn it with fire, steal everything of value, kidnap all the wives and the children, and take everything away. David and his men come back to Ziklag to the camp, and what do they find there? Find everything's messed up. It's a mess, burned with fire. Nothing's left there of any value.

The Bible says that not only was David discouraged, but the men were discouraged to such a degree that they wanted to stone David. They're going to pick up rocks and kill him because now they feel like David has caused this to happen. They've lost everything in this situation. We see a group of people who are deeply, deeply discouraged. And this discouragement was connected to an event. The event was the Amalekites raiding their camp. So often in our lives, we can become very discouraged when something really bad happens to us.

There's an event that transpires in your life and it triggers something inside of you. Maybe it's bad news through a phone call that you received or something happens at work that just really seems devastating to you or something happens in your family that you didn't anticipate happening but it seems as though your life just overnight sort of fell apart and you have these events that transpire. If we're not careful, those moments, the trauma of those moments, the difficulty of those moments, can move us into a very discouraged place.

There are all kind of things that cause these events to transpire. Let me talk about some of these things, three ways that we find ourselves discouraged. I mentioned the first one already, that's the sudden trials and troubles and traumas that come our way. Suddenly something has happened. As it occurred here in 1 Samuel 30, verses three and four, when David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed. This was the triggering event for them. So oftentimes these sudden moments—maybe there's someone in the room right now that you've had something suddenly happen to you recently and it's just turned everything over in your life. You're reeling from the pain of that moment, the difficulty, the trauma, the trials, the trouble of something that suddenly came upon your life.

The second thing that causes discouragement for us is disappointment from people. When people break relationships with us that we thought were solid relationships or they betray us in some way, we thought we could trust them and we find out we couldn't trust them at all. They were disloyal to us in some manner, unfaithful to us in some manner, and a friendship is violated. Or moments when there are personal attacks that come our way. Anytime that people reject you, hurt you, or in some way damage your life, there's this triggering moment that occurs that can push you into great discouragement.

This is going on with David as well because the Bible says in verse six of 1 Samuel 30, David was greatly distressed, greatly discouraged. Why? Because the men were talking of stoning him. These are men who have been with him around 10 years, eight to 10 years. They'd been his loyal soldiers, but now they're talking about stoning him. The Bible says each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and his daughters. Here's this moment for David: he's not only experiencing a trauma in the moment, but he has these wonderful friends he thought now turning against him.

Paul the Apostle in the New Testament understood this as well. There was a time when Paul went before a judge to be judged for his future and he'll ultimately be martyred for his faith. He needs some people to witness for him, to stand up for him. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter four, Paul is describing this final moment in his life before he's going to be martyred. He needed some friends, and the Bible says Paul says himself, "At my first defense, no one came to my support. Everyone deserted me." This was a trauma moment for Paul, and he has to process it by praying for forgiveness. He says, "May it not be held against them." Anytime people disappoint you, it can be a triggering moment that can set you off into a stage of discouragement in your life, a very damaging thing for you.

The third thing that can spiral you into discouragement would be extended seasons of problems, pain, or fruitlessness. The key phrase there is an extended season. Would you say that phrase with me? An extended season. Not just an event. Let me tell you why. Because when you have a bad event in life, if you're relatively healthy, you can bounce back from it. It might take you a little while, but some event happens, you'll get your bearings and your equilibrium again. Even when people sort of disappoint you, you can balance your life back out again. You can get going again.

It's usually not the thing that will take you down. The thing that takes most people down is what I would call a season, an extended season of problems and pain and fruitlessness. It just seems like the problem you're in just will not go away. This is what's going on for David as well, because David there in this moment, he's finding himself in a situation where men who've been with him for almost a decade are now about to depart from him and stone him in the process, and they've had enough with him.

This situation at Ziklag is like the straw that breaks the camel's back. Problem after problem after problem. They've been running from Saul for almost 10 years and now this happens to them. It's this extended period that wears you down. When you're going through a problem for a long time, it can take the life out of you. Can I get an amen right there? It can take the life out of you. David is in this moment. There are all kind of scriptures describing different men and women of the Bible who go through stuff like this. Much of the Bible will describe some of the greatest people in scripture who went through seasons, long seasons of difficulty.

I get frustrated at times when people read their Bible and all they see are miracles in the Bible. Yeah, there are miracles in the Bible, but there's also suffering in the Bible. There's a lot of suffering in the Bible, a lot of people who suffered all kind of things and had to work their way through seasons. Miracles often come on the back side of that, but there's the suffering that often leads up to it. And so the Bible is filled with these stories including David and including others.

Let me talk about one other person today. His name is Elijah, Elijah the prophet. Elijah the prophet lived during a time when evil was everywhere. The king of Israel during the time of Elijah was a man by the name of Ahab and he was married to Jezebel. No worse people in all the world that you can imagine than Ahab and Jezebel. They hated God, they hated anything to do with God, and they were worshippers of the idols, worshippers of Baal. They had prophets of Baal all around them, rejecting God although they were the lead people of Israel.

Elijah tried many times to bring them to repentance and bring them back to God, but Ahab and Jezebel wanted to kill Elijah. Everything is culminating in the story when finally Elijah calls for a meeting together with all the prophets of Baal. You can read about this in 1 Kings chapter 17, 18, 19. I'll read from chapter 19 a little bit in just a moment. But here is Elijah and he calls the 450 prophets of Baal. They have a showdown, and God shows up in a big way.

There's this moment of amazing fire from heaven that comes down and Elijah shows that the God of Israel is the one true God, and all those 450 prophets of Baal are slain by Elijah. That makes Ahab and Jezebel all the more angry at Elijah. So they're going to kill him for sure. Notice what happens in 1 Kings chapter 19, verses three and four. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."

I bet you've never prayed that prayer. "I've had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life; I'm no better than my ancestors." For year after year after year, Elijah had been pursued just like David had been pursued by Saul, Elijah had been pursued by Ahab and Jezebel, and finally he says, "I've had enough. I can't take this anymore, God. Would you just kill me right now?" Now, by the way, Elijah was not suicidal. He was not thinking about taking his own life, but he sure wanted God to take it. He wanted to die. He'd had enough.

I'm sure that there have been many of you in this room that you've come to places and maybe that's where you are today, that you're going through a terrible season, it feels like, in your life, and you feel like if I could just die and go to heaven, things would be a lot better. But let me tell you something, God brought Elijah through, God brought David through, and God will bring you through. He'll bring you through. That's why you should not become discouraged.

Elijah is in this moment of discouragement. David was in the moment of discouragement. The season of trouble had taken a toll on them, and in this moment they're just about ready to give up. The most common cause of discouragement for believers in Christ is going through an extended season of problems, an extended season of pain, an extended season where it seems like nothing's working in your life. You're trying but you're not making any progress. Your business may not be making progress, your finances, your health. It could affect many different areas of your life, but you're in this extended season.

When you're going through these seasons, you need the right perspective if you're going to avoid discouragement. Discouragement is an enemy. It is not your friend. It's an enemy of your life. So I'm going to give you six things as we wrap up today that will help you to battle discouragement when you're going through a season, a long or difficult season of problems, pain, or what feels like fruitlessness, barrenness in your life.

Six things to remember, and I want you to write these down if you're taking notes. Remember number one that seasons are temporary, they're not permanent. Always remember that. Anybody in the room tired of winter? I am tired of winter. I'm tired of seeing snow. It was pretty when it was falling, but I'm done with it. In fact, I am so looking forward to springtime. I've been looking at pictures of flowers just to get a little bit of hope in my life.

The good news is I know that winter is temporary. Spring is coming. It's vital to realize this in your life, that when you're going through a season it feels like that's all your life is and you define your life by that one season. Let me say it again: seasons are not permanent, seasons are temporary. Look at Genesis chapter one, verses 17 through 19 with me. Notice what it says, God creating the world. God sets these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. Verse 19, capture this with me today: "And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day."

What I want you to see is that yes, there was an evening, but it's going to pass and morning came. There are times in your life when it feels so dark and so discouraged. Don't you lose hope. Why? Because what's dark right now, light is on the way. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 30, verse five: "Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning." You may be in a dark night right now, but God sent me to you today to tell you that hold on because the morning is coming.

You may be in the darkest midnight, the darkest season of your life that you've ever been in before. Hold on because although it's night, night is temporary. There's going to be a sunrise and the sun is going to break over the horizon for your life. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy will come in the morning. It's on the way for you.

So remember when you're going through a tough season, seasons are not permanent, seasons are temporary. Second, remember that some seasons are long and some are short. Years change and sometimes you have a long winter and a short spring and a long summer and a short fall. It just goes different times every year. Never quite sure when spring's going to start and end and when summer's going to start. Even the groundhog up in Pennsylvania can't help us. He does his best job, but we still struggle trying to figure out is winter going to end or not.

But some seasons are short and some seasons are long. You need to have that perspective because as you're waiting for morning to come, you have to recognize that sometimes it's going to be a long time and sometimes it's going to be a short time. You don't know for sure, but you have to be prepared that yes, it will eventually be over, but I don't get to call the timing on it.

Habakkuk 2, verse three, listen to what God says: "But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled." Slowly, steadily, surely the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair. Don't get discouraged, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient. They will not be overdue a single day.

Romans chapter nine, verse 28: "For the Lord will carry out His sentence upon the earth quickly with finality." Isaiah 48, verse three, describing quick and slow: "Long ago I told you what was going to happen, then suddenly I took action and all my predictions came true." 2 Peter chapter three, verse eight: "But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends, a day is like a thousand years to the Lord and a thousand years is like a day." Seasons are temporary, not permanent. Some are long and some are short. Number three: remember that there's a purpose in every season.

Whatever season you're in, there's a purpose for it. I'm really hoping as I look at that snow that continues to sit on the ground out there, I'm hoping there's a purpose behind it. I think it's killing insects that we won't have to deal with this summer. I'm hoping there's a bunch of funerals going on underneath that snow right now and ants are dying and mosquitoes are dying and all kind of bugs are dying because it's cold out there. We're going to have a nice summer because we had a lot of snow on the ground.

In the seasons of your life, there's a purpose to every season. Understand there is a purpose, as Ecclesiastes 3, verse one says: "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under sun." God speaks to Noah after the flood and says, "As long as the earth endures, there's going to be seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. They will never cease." There'll be the rotation of seasons, and there's a purpose behind them.

Number four: the purpose of each season isn't always obvious. You may not understand what's going on in the season, but something's happening there. The problem with us as human beings, we always want to understand why something is happening. Have you ever asked God why? "Why am I going through this, God? Why is this happening?" I've learned over the years that that's not a good question to ask. God has never answered my "why" questions.

But He's always answered my "what" questions. "What do You want me to do now, God, in this moment?" I may not understand why I'm going through something, but there's always an answer to the "what" question. What can I do in this moment? What can I do, Lord, that will line up with Your word and with Your will? God reminds us that we don't always understand how He works in our life. Isaiah 55, verses eight and nine: "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord. And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts." Many times you may not understand what's happening in the season, but something is happening.

That leads me to the fifth thing: remember that tough times require patience and what the tough times are doing in your life is they're building character in your life. These tough seasons you're going through that seem to be so long and difficult, something is happening that requires patience of you and it's building character in your life. Paul writes about this. Paul went through all kind of stuff. Notice what he says here: "We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop patience, and endurance develops strength of character and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."

The last thing I'll mention here: what do you remember when you're going through tough seasons? Remember that God's grace is sufficient for every season. I'm going to say it again because you need to get this in your heart today. Remember that God's grace is sufficient for every season of your life. Paul went through all kind of terrible things. He's arrested, he's beaten, he's put in jail, he has to deal with people falsely accusing him. Ultimately, he's going to be martyred for his faith.

But there's one particular time for Paul that he really struggled with something and he describes it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He's struggling with something called his thorn in the flesh. We don't know what that thorn was. Some Bible scholars think it was some medical condition Paul suffered with, some believe he had contracted malaria, others believe it was the Judaizers that were always giving him trouble. Anytime you don't know what something is, it's because God says you don't need to know.

It really doesn't matter what it was for Paul. It's just the fact that he had a thorn in his flesh, he had something that was troubling him time and time again that he couldn't get past. It was a long season of something that was buffeting his life. Notice what happens with Paul in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians. He says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me." It wasn't just a simple little prayer. Three times he went to God very seriously. He pleaded with Him to take this thing away.

I believe it was over a season of time. He prayed asking God to take it away and nothing went away, and so at some time later he prayed again, and some time later he prayed again. Now God is going to speak to Paul, and God's response to Paul—"But He said to me," God said to me, Paul says—"My grace is sufficient." What is God's grace? It's sufficient. It's enough. If it's sufficient, you don't need anything else. "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness."

Paul understands something: "I haven't taken this away from you because I'm teaching you a lesson, I'm helping you to learn something about My grace, that it's enough for you no matter what you're facing in your life because actually when you're weak, that's when My grace is strongest in you." This situation you're going through is to help you to learn how My power can work in and through your life. Then Paul changes the tone here in the next phrase and he begins to give a testimony.

"Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me." Paul says, "Well, now that I understand that, I'm going to start boasting about times when I feel weak because that's when Christ's power is the strongest in me." He says in verse 10: "That is why for Christ's sake, I delight." What do you delight in? I delight in lots of wonderful things. I delight in all kind of things. I don't often delight in the same things Paul delights in.

Paul tells us what he delights in. He says, "I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, and in difficulties." Paul says, "I just love it when I feel weak. I just take a delight when people insult me. Oh, it's amazing when I go through a hardship. I love it when people persecute me. And I just can't wait for the next time I have another difficulty. I delight in weaknesses, I delight in insults, I delight in hardships, I delight in persecutions, I delight in difficulties." He says the reason for this is "for when I am weak, then I am strong."

When you're going through the toughest times of life, God is using those moments in your life to take the "me" out of us so there's more of Him in us. He's removing the "me" in you so that there's more of Him in you. There's nothing like going through the seasons of difficulty and challenges and hardships as Paul describes them here as God is working in your life to let there be less of you and more of Him and His power at work in and through you. There's a purpose, there's a reason, and His grace is enough for you no matter what season you're in.

When you're tempted to be discouraged by the challenging seasons of your life, keep the right perspective. I'm going to give you a quote that I heard many years ago. It's not original with me, but here's the principle. When you're going through the furnace of affliction and life is hard, seasons are long and difficult in your life—and by the way, if you haven't gone through one of those, one day you will—if you're in one right now, you need to hold on to this truth that when you're going through the long seasons of difficulty in your life, always remember this: God keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat.

What does that mean? It means when He's got you in the fire of trials, He's got His eye on the clock. He knows how long you need to be in there. And He has His hand on the thermostat. He knows how hot it needs to be for you so that you come out better on the other end. God wants you to be done. He doesn't want you coming out half-baked. He wants you to be fully done. God says, "I'm going to put you in some fire from time to time because I'm going to make something out of you."

I'm going to make something out of you, something you never dreamed you could be. But to get to who you want to be and who I want you to be, you're going to have to go through some things to get there. And there'll be some moments that you will go through the seasons, the furnace of fires and affliction. But never forget, God says, "I've got My eye on the clock and I've got My hand on the thermostat. I'll never keep you in there too long and I'll never make it too hot for you because My grace is sufficient for you." Would you bow your heads with me as we pray today?

Lord, so many times in life, we are very tempted and we have fallen prey to becoming discouraged, and it just happens to all of us. Sometimes it's an event that's happened to us that sort of propels us into that moment. Sometimes it's someone that's maybe disappointed us in a relationship. But so often, it has to do with the seasons of life that we go through that are challenging—long seasons, short seasons, just difficult seasons that we're in.

Lord, we come today asking You to help us to remember the reality that Your grace is enough for any season of life. That seasons are temporary, that when there's an evening, morning will come. And when something seems long, we simply need to be patient as You build character in us. Trust You to get us through this. There's a purpose in it, God. And part of that purpose is You revealing Your grace that strengthens us in the weakest times of our life.

I pray for people this afternoon that are in this room right now or those watching with us online. Lord, there are people under the sound of my voice right now who are going through a terrible trial. Lord, they feel so very weak. It's been a season of this in their life. I pray in the name of Jesus that You would impart to them a special understanding and a fresh revelation and a fresh impartation of Your grace to them, to let them know today that Your grace is enough to carry them through.

Lord, we want to boast in our weakness so the power of Christ can be manifest through us. Seal this word and this truth in our lives. Let us live by it day by day. We commit it to You in Christ's wonderful and precious name.

I would like to close today by giving you an opportunity to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me right now? Right where you are, just simply bow your head with me and I'm going to give you a prayer to pray and you can simply speak this prayer out, whisper this prayer out, and from the sincerity of your heart, call upon God. And I promise you that He will hear and answer you.

So let us pray together. Start by simply whispering the name Jesus. Let there come from your heart just the declaration of His name. Say, "Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, that I have fallen short with You. I'm sorry for all of my sins. Jesus, I believe in You. I believe that You are God's Son. I believe that You are the Savior of the world. I believe that You died on the cross for my sins. And I believe that You rose from the grave, that You are alive today."

Now pray these words: "Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Come into my life. Forgive me of my sins. Give me a new start in You. I commit my life to You in Jesus' name. Amen." Now if you prayed that prayer with me, I want to encourage you with a promise from God's word that says that when we call upon God's name, call upon the Son of God, there is salvation that comes to our lives. He changes us from the inside out and you become a new creation. Old things pass away, all things become new. And that's exactly what has happened to you today.

Your next step really is to make sure that you get into a good Bible-believing church and you begin to study God's word, get God's word in you. Make sure that you get a copy of the Bible if you don't have one and begin to read it. Spend some time every day in prayer. I would encourage you also to check out the resources on our website that will help you to get going in your relationship with Jesus. You can find them at church-redeemer.org. Get those into your hands. Get started in your new life with Jesus Christ. Thanks again for joining us today. May God bless you and we look forward to seeing you next time.